With the demand for electricity increasing each year and the supply holding steady, we face the real possibility of brownouts or rolling blackouts during periods of high demand, such as we’ve experienced this summer. In response to this, the New York State Independent System Operator (NYISO), has developed Demand Response programs, which are activated during high demand periods.
The simple truth is that we need more electric generation capacity in New York State to meet the growing need. But, building power plants is costly, time consuming, and fraught with regulatory and political challenges. The principal of the Demand Response programs is quite simply that one MW of power reduced is equivalent to one MW of power generated.
Depending upon the location, one MW is worth $50,000 – $150,000 per year in New York State